Clubs in both the Engage Super League and The Co-operative Championships are to benefit from the new dual registration system which has been introduced for the 2010 season.

Dual registration refers to an arrangement between clubs whereby a player continues to be registered to his current Super League club and is also registered to play for a club in The Co-operative Championship of Championship One.

BJ Mather, the RFL’s Head of Player Development, explains: “The purpose of the RFL’s new dual registration system is to provide a flexible development pathway for young Super League players who might not be quite ready to make the step up to Super League first team duties on a permanent basis. “We were of the view that, for such players, there may be an opportunity for his Super League club to enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement with a Championship of Championship One club with a view to giving the player quality first team experience in a manner that will hopefully prove cost-effective for the Championships club.”

The dual registration system is aimed at young Super League players who are thought to be not quite ready to make the step up to ‘week in, week out’ Super League first team duties but for whom first team match experience is likely to be beneficial for their development.

Only Engage Super League players can be dual registered and the receiving club must be a club in the Championships, meaning that Super League to Super League club dual registrations are not available.

The player must be under 23 on August 31 in the year preceding the season in which the proposed dual registration will apply so for 2010, players who were not yet 23 on August 31, 2009 can be dual registered.

A dual registered player will be eligible to play and train with both clubs in a format agreed between the clubs, subject to registration, salary cap and competition eligibility rules.

The player is restricted to playing in one fixture per scheduled round of fixtures in any given week and would not be eligible to play in a Championships fixture on a Thursday and for his Super League club at the weekend.

The new ‘dual registration’ system is intended to complement the existing player loan system.

The current limit on the number of players a receiving club can utilise will also apply to ‘dual registered’ players. Therefore a receiving club will be limited to a total of four loaned and/or dual registered players, and no more than three loaned and/or dual registered players from the same club.